Checkout.com has launched an employee secondary share sale, valuing the company at $12bn, the latest fintech to use buybacks to stay private longer.
Founded by Guillaume Pousaz in 2012, UK-headquartered Checkout makes money by processing payments for clients such as eBay, Ikea and Sainsbury’s. According to a Bloomberg report, Checkout announced the buyback scheme on Friday, which will allow its 2000 employees to cash out a portion of their holdings.
The payments unicorn’s new price tag is a mark up on its previous internal estimates of $9.35bn from 2023 — but far below the $40bn valuation awarded by investors like Tiger Global and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC the year before.
The new valuation is also significantly lower than other payment service providers Checkout competes with. For example, Adyen currently has a market cap of €43bn and US-based Stripe is reportedly in talks to repurchase shares from venture capital backers at a $106.7bn valuation.
The London-based fintech is on the “path to profitability” according to a statement shared with Bloomberg and is on track to process $300bn of online payments this year. Checkout is also planning to add 300 staff to its workforce, and is set to launch in Canada and Brazil.
